Neutron stars bend light so much we see their front and back at once

Neutron stars contain a sun’s worth of mass in a sphere the size of a large city

NASA/Dana Berry

By Chelsea Whyte

Neutron stars are small and dense, which gives them an intense gravitational field – one so powerful it can bend the light emitted on their far side around towards the front of the star. In other words, we could see all sides of them once.

When a massive star is destroyed in a supernova, it can leave behind a neutron star – a sphere the size of a city that is extremely dense. Hajime Sotani at the National …